The New Trailers For 'In The Heights' Will Have You Dancing In Your Chair
The pair of new trailers shows Lin-Manuel Miranda is clearly bringing his Broadway magic to the big screen with In the Heights
To get us excited to see In the Heights, pretty much all you need to say is this: Lin-Manuel Miranda and Anthony Ramos. Miranda wrote and created Hamilton. Ramos starred in it (and was just named one of Time magazine’s Next 100). This is obviously a dream team, and now they’re bringing us another award-winning musical that we can watch on the big screen (and stream at home)? Sign us right on up.
But as if we needed any more reason to be excited for In the Heights to drop this summer, a new, full-length trailer was just released. And fam, it is double trailers full of Latinx pride and music that will have you dancing in your chair, no matter how much Daylight Saving Time has you reaching for the snooze button this morning. Check it out.
Because Miranda loves us and wants us to be happy, here’s another.
In the movie, Ramos plays Usnavi, a bodega owner in the New York City neighborhood of Washington Heights who dreams of hitting it big and creating a better life for his family and friends. The musical, which netted Miranda his first set of Tony Awards and made him a rising star on Broadway long before Hamilton, follows Usnavi’s friends and family as they fight for the American Dream in their largely Dominican neighborhood. Previous trailers for the movie version show that Miranda has made some changes to the original script, leaning into stories of immigration challenges that have been on front pages across the nation in recent years.
Miranda, who originated the role of Usnavi onstage, will make some appearances in the movie adaptation as Piraguero, the owner of a small piragua stand in the neighborhood. “This is a big movie musical,” Miranda said during a virtual event over the weekend before the new trailers were released. “We’re so used to asking for less, just to ask to occupy space. As Latinos, we’re like, ‘Please just let us make our little movie.’ And Jon, on every step of the way, he was like, ‘Nope, this is a big movie.’ These guys have big dreams, we’re allowed to go that big.”
And to put the cherry on top of the In the Heights sundae we’re already looking forward to, the film is directed by Jon Chu. Chu, who directed Crazy Rich Asians, has said previously that he was drawn to this movie because of the way the story focuses on immigrant families and their deep love for their families.
“You can’t change the world if they don’t want to change, but never underestimate the power of planting a seed,” Chu told Variety. “I believe that this movie is an amazingly beautiful seed that can change a lot of minds.”
In the Heights will premiere June 18, both in theaters, and streaming on HBO Max.
